Sooooooo......I have been really really busy (it seems like I start every blog entry like this. I am busy... blah blah blah). Anyhoo, I have a lecture coming up at Towson University in Maryland (Sept 25th). See more info here
I have a few shows coming up. I will have to blog about that stuff later. I am kind of in a whirlwind of paperwork and boxes so yeah. I am trying to keep up with it all.

In no particular order, here is what I have been doing......

I moved to New Paltz NY and started my new job as a Metals Lecturer with Jamie Bennet, Myra Mimlitsch Gray and John Cogswell We got REALLY lucky and a faculty member had a house she had on the market that wasn't selling (sound familiar?) so she needed to rent it. We were in the right place at the right time. Here is the view from my back porch.



and the side yard...




With Liz's help I unpacked our pods (no help from the dog. Little jerk.)



I found a place in town that sells my favorite beer. Thats a Belgian triple in 12 oz bottles! Yeah I have never seen it in small bottles either. Man it was good.



I went to work and moved into my new office. Great view of the mountain. Lots of great folks here. No photos of folks yet.





We unpacked some more crap.



Liz planted some stuff. YELLOW!!!



I built a new dry-erase/drawing/layout work table. Got a nice sun burn cutting wood on the back porch.



I almost set up all of my studio



and I made a bunch of handouts for my new classes using Rhino and illustrator.



whew, yeah man I am tired. Thank goodness its the weekend. I can hear Liz downstairs clanging pots and pans around, which means she found the box with all of the cookware. Think I will go help... talk soon.

Jantze Brogard Asshoff =trashcan

It is now day two in New Paltz. Right before I left Richmond Liz's transmission went out on her Mazda Tribute (cha-ching!). Wouldn't you know it, as soon as I got here in my Jeep my transmission went out(CHA-CHING!!). I may have a fund raiser where I have folks beat my car with a baseball bat. With the money I am going to buy a scooter.
I am getting REALLY busy with the semester about to start but I will try and keep up with postings.

Somehow this trashcan [via] Jantze Brogard Asshoff symbolized all of my feelings about my house before we left Richmond. Its such great idea

more helvetica

Helvetica made from multiple type fonts with a little Nirvana thrown in. [via] NOTCOT

Anat Grozovski at Quirk

So I happened to swing by the Quirk gallery in the middle of our whirlwind move and caught the Vault show on First Friday (Anat Grozovski). Something about this work seemed so interesting to me. Each piece formed these little vignettes. I found myself staring at them making up my own story of why this little red string was attached at the top or why each pearl was on an individual gold hinge. There were these really nice fanned doilies and sheets of mica that protruded from the tops of rings. It is such a cliche thing to say but this work "exists on so many levels" for me. Oh man.....

Moving on. It was hung along the wall in almost a scientific manner, which was perfect. I love when things work. Go see it for yourself. The show will be up from August 1 - August 30. Quirk is open Monday-Friday 10-5.


Here is an excerpt from Quirk's website about the "Vault" Project:

"On January 3, 2008 Quirk will launch the Vault Project 2008

The Vault Project 2008 is a yearlong series of exhibitions at Quirk Gallery. Curated by C. James Meyer, Emeritus Professor, Craft & Material Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University and Robert Ebendorf, Distinguished Professor of Metalwork and Jewelry at East Carolina University.

The curatorial intent for the Vault Project 2008 was to present a group of exhibitions which will challenge the audience. Meyer and Ebendorf agreed on twelve artists without regard to media utilized, point in artistic career or gender of the artist. They did, however, look for a unique artistic vision. Because of the small, intimate nature of the Vault the curators have opened the door for invited artists to experiment with new ideas."

anyway here are some shots of the show (sorry the new iphone just didn't do it justice):

MOVING!!!

Still moving. The dog and I are taking a quick break near an AC vent

PODS have landed

Our PODs have arrived. Thank god I ordered two.

eye jewelry

You probably seen this but I thought it was cool. It makes my eyes water.




via: Erick Larenbeek

new webpage

Just updated my webpage. Check it out and help me make sure it all works.

new stuff

just some quick photos of work I am trying to get done before we leave for NY.

dentist

So I thought I would mention one more thing. I had to go to the dentist yesterday. It turned out that a few of my fillings had failed and needed to be replaced. So they had to grind out 3 fillings and refill them. It took three hours..... yeah. Anyhoo it didn't hurt at all while they were doing it but today I am feeling it. The crazy part is, and I am sure this is old news, they used this new Ultraviolet curing ceramic/resin. Last time I had a filling it was a metal alloy type thing. So you can imagine when they brought this crazy light wand doo-dad up to my mouth I was kind of freaked out. Well you can guess where this is going. I am going to find some of this stuff and try it for myself. I know a few folks have already messed with this stuff (Phil Carrizzi: see photo below). Also the new 3D printer that we ordered at New Paltz works on the same principal where resin is cured using a UV light as it is being pulled out of a pool or reservoir. Cool stuff.

Sooooooooo. I haven't written anything in a while. I feel like my life has become a whirlwind of paperwork, carpentry, computers and house hunting. In anticipation of getting ready for the big move Liz and I are trying to sell her house, rent mine, buy a new house, find a place to rent in New Paltz and finish up my job at VCU. So you can imagine how hard it has been to find time to sit down and write a few things on ye-old blog. I think we have successfully found a place to rent while Liz's place is on the market. When her place sells we will be able to buy a place up yonder. Until then we have been packing packing packing. I didn't realize how much crap we have until we started to box everything up.
Anyhoo, after dealing with my flooded basement Liz and I visited New Paltz one more time to find a place to live. I think we did it. There is a place we love that we are going to try and get. We pulled out of that other house. It was just way too expensive and WAY too small. We realized that we have too much stuff, hence the WAY too small. It seems like a perfect time to reduce the amount of crap that we own. So I have been recycling all of my old magazines, consolidating my DVD collection, getting rid of that old coffee table that was always a eyesore and just generally throwing away a lot of crap. We ordered our PODs which I am excited about. They come at the end of the month which will be nice. Once they show up we will be sending off the majority of our stuff into storage for a month or so until we can get settled. I will try and post some more when I can. Until then I will leave you with this photo of the "farmers stand" that is down the street from the house we are looking at. I put it in quotes because really its an open air grocery store.

oh man

So I was going to write about a metals show I saw by the senior metals students at VCU but my freaking basement flooded last night!!(no worries. I will write about it later).

So far there is no structural damage (cross your fingers) the bad news is that Liz and I were packing our studios to go to New Paltz and all of the boxes were on the floor down there!! I was told by the city that "someone" forgot to turn off my service before they purged the main line. They have been working on the water in Jackson Ward for about two months now and it has been a complete mess. I was told that in the course of one day all of the water from the main line followed my service line and emptied into my basement. So I am spending most of the day today cataloging tools and such that got ruined so I can make a claim. I am also kind of posting this as a time line just in case for insurance purposes. I have some great shots on my other camera. Liz kept yelling at me to stop taking photos and start saving my stuff (check the bottom of the stump for a water lever reference). Here are the ones I got off while she wasn't looking:

hmmm

you have to skip through the first 60 some seconds to get to the good stuff but if you like radiohead's new album you will like this.

Big Ideas (don't get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

please read

I have been trying to make an effort to stop "flipping" through pages or "surfing" for images but actually taking the time to read things. As I am packing up my life, all of my belongings are now boxes and all of my distractions have become pixelated. Somehow I find the time to visit a few of these sites on a regular basis and there is ALWAYS something that makes me think about my work or my field. Anyhoo here are a few places I go:

Conceptual Metalsmithing

Redefining Craft

Extreme Craft

new house maybe?

Well Liz and I went up to New Paltz to check things out. The rent there is CRAZY. Before we went up we sat down and did some math and figured a mortgage might be the same as rent if not cheaper. So we went house shopping. We looked at about 15 houses in two days!!! My brain was pretty much shot. I am still mentally cataloging the good, the bad and the ugly (This one has bullet holes through the window, this one has a foot of water in the basement, this one needs a new roof, that one doesn't have AC, etc etc etc) Near the end we found the almost perfect house. The only bad part is that it doesn't really have room for a studio.


I gotta say thanks again to Myra and Ken for having us at their place. I know having house guests is a huge pain in the ass. FYI - Ken makes some mind blowing coffee and Myra prepares some tasty meat. I feel like I have been living in a coffee cave all of this time. I think we went to at least four coffee shops in New Paltz and they were all incredible! Richmond needs to get off its ass.
Well So far so good. I am freaking out about all the work I have to do in the next three months to make all of this happen. I have a bunch of repairs to do to both places here before we can rent or sell them. I gotta finish a few things up at VCU, prepare a few things for New Paltz and sell then buy a freaking house. whew. Until then here are some photos of what we are calling "THE house". Check out the awesome checkered porch Cross your fingers. -Out


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

It official

Sorry for not blogging. I have been busy and now you will know why.


I am leaving Richmond. I have just accepted a job at Suny New Paltz. I am super excited. I flew up a couple of weeks ago and did a quick interview. I am really honored to get to work with three great metal artists: Jamie Bennet, Myra Mimlitsch-Gray and John Cogswell. Now my life is going to be the madness that is preparing property for sale and rent. I spent all day yesterday putting in a new sink, installing thresholds, patching drywall etc.

If anyone is interested in either properties please let me know. I have talked to a few of you guys out there but I am really looking for a sale. I am trying to rent or sell by early July. I am going to miss Richmond. I have a feeling that Liz and I are going be busy doing all things Richmond before we leave. This means going to the Byrd, Maymont, Pony pasture, Cary town, First Friday, etc. If anyone wants to come along let us know. We gotta get it all done soon.


On another note I just got this book in the mail. Its called BIJOUX: Illustration et Design put out by MaoMao publications. Its all about jewelry designer's and their drawings. Its a huge book, something like 640 pages of full color illustrations and photos. Lots of Awesome folks are in it. I don't know where to buy it yet but you may want to check here. Check it out.

"I am Gabirel Craig"

Well hello dare. It has been a while. Interesting developments on my end. Some things I can talk about and somethings I can't (I may be able to spill the beans here soon so keep reading). Things are winding down and pretty much over as far as school is concerned. I have have been the busiest I have ever been. There have been shows after shows after shows and I am having a hard time keeping up with all of them. I have had to cancel a few things that I am not too happy about canceling namely ICFF/Designboom. I just felt that if I was to keep my sanity and survive monitarily speaking I has to cancel. It has to do with the thing I can't talk about yet. I may or may not be leaving Richmond. There I have said it. In any case if I do leave I have a house for sale and possibly another space that would have been an awesome live/work/rent space but alas it will make some artist VERY happy. Anyway if you are interested I am sure you have seen all of the photos here on the blog. If you want a personal tour of either space just email me. Moving on...

I have some work in a show that is up right now at the Facere gallery in Seattle
The show is called Signs of Life. Here is the description:
Signs of Life is a contemporary jewelry art show and companion jewelry art catalog/literary journal. The jewelry art show features work by nine artists. The catalog/literary journal pairs these jewelry artists with nine writers in a unique publication that celebrates both literature and jewelry art.

I am also exhibiting with the Sienna Gallery at SOFA NY. Myra Mimlitsch Gray and JAMIE BENNETT will also have work there. If you are in the area please go and check it out.

Finally I have to mention an exhibition I saw yesterday. VCU is having its normal end of the year of shows. One of them:
Gabirel Craig: the narcissist series -rings that know they are great
appealed to me the most.

The work is about itself, jewelry's self importance as a whole and reasons why most people think jewelry is successful. Standing there looking at this "punch in the face" masterpiece all I could ask was "how important is contemporary jewelry?" or more so "why do I feel my jewelry is important?". I had this overwhelming feeling that I was doing something wrong and felt extremely self indulgent by making the work I make. The show inspired me to think more about my work which to me was a huge success and I loved it. Great job Gabriel.

See photo of installation below.

I should have some interesting information in my next post.

SPRING BADA BING

So I did this show which was really cool. I had a good time. I just wished it wasn't raining the WHOLE time. I am ready to dry off for a while. I only have this one photo that I took but I think it sums up all of the cool stuff that was there. Thanks again to the Richmond craft mafia. Click the image to make it bigger. -Arthur

come out and buy my stuff

Haven't posted anything in a while but I promise I will be better after I do these shows and school ends. I have been slammed with house repair, finals, laser cutting, CNC routing, making work, finishing up stuff on the studio so we can move in, doing electrical work on lights and fixtures, fixing digital equipment at school, Going to art openings and end of the year events, sending work off in the mail, etc etc etc. Somehow, in between all of these things I have been making work to sell at this years SPRING BADA BING!! hosted by the Richmond Craft Mafia (I love them ladies). Please click the button in the upper left hand corner for info on where and when. Until then I thought I would give you a taste. Sorry about the bad photos. I think something is wrong with my camera phone or I have just been drinking WAY too much coffee. Gotta get back to work....... see you there.